In a traditional cheese-manufacturing process, cheese curd is filled into moulds.
Different approaches for this are used, some examples are listed.
Manually fill and distribute curd particles by hand, for example at traditional cheese making at dairy farms or artisan cheese-production facilities.
Direct fill curd and whey mixture or pre-drained curd into moulds in so called final press systems distributing curd and whey (or pre-drained curd) over a spread of moulds and as such distributing the curd-whey over the moulds. At end filling moving the curd on top of the moulds into the moulds. After curd filling close the moulds with lids and press the curd to cheeses in the moulds.
Direct fill whey and curd into the mould and use the mould also as draining unit. The whey is required to distribute and place the curd inside the mould.
Another example is pre-formation and compacting of a curd bed in a so called drainage column or drainage bed. The compacted curd bed is cut into curd blocks which are transferred into moulds.
When filling a mould with curd resulting in an evenly distributed curd bed in the mould and even height curd beds in case of multi moulds in combination with a wide range of possible shapes of moulds, for example varying from large single moulds for round or rectangular shaped cheese till multi-moulds for small cheeses in round, rectangular, oval or any shape required, is proven to be a problematic feature of curd in mould filling systems. Most systems have significant limitations in one or more aspects.